Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Warner wavers, Webb presses on

By Libby

How shocking. The Republicans have been saying for months that they would consider a compromise after the Petraeus report and now they're backing down. As the saying goes these days, no one could have predicted the White House would spend the summer concocting some cockamamie success story and offer up a handful of troops that were going to be rotated out anyway, in order to buy another Friedman unit or two and give the GOP cover to run out on their promises.

And who could have anticipated Warner would sell out on Jim Webb's amendment, the only piece of legislation currently on the table that has a prayer of providing some immediate relief for the troops on the ground? Of course he has his very good reasons. "It took a lot of convincing to make the first units come home before Christmas," Mr. Warner said. "There is a lot of importance in that."

Oy. It's not even worth pointing out how pathetically false, wrong-headed and heartless this position is. Better to focus on the counter measures, which at the moment is getting Webb's bill passed. Digby has an excellent post on this and also quotes Mark Kleiman on the Democrats potential strategy here. They pretty much agree with the points I've beenpushing for a couple of days now and explain the mechanics much better than I can.

The bottom line is this is a good week to call or email your Senators. You can get a list of the key players at Open Left but every single Senator needs to hear from their voters. That would be you. Even if you're represented by GOP extremists, let them know this matters and you're watching. And while you have them on the phone, don't forget to remind them that you want them to also support Amendment S. 2202, the Leahy-Dodd Habeas Restoration Act.